Hi, y'all! Here's a prologue for a potential long-form Owl House fan fiction (the first one I've ever published on this website). If people are interested enough in this prologue, I may continue this story. It's gonna be a slow burn fic, which is way out of my comfort zone, but I just couldn't stop imagining Hunter having a loving family in the Demon Realm. Not really an original AU, but this is my whack at the idea. Anyway, enjoy the first chapter of my AU, Hunter Clawthorne.
Under the shelter of the Boiling Isles' blood-red trees, Emperor Belos strode through a clearing. The reclusive monarch had not been seen outside of his castle for 50 years, and he had taken great caution to ensure that he would not be seen on this nightly stroll. He was tall and imposing in his mask and white cloak, walking as if he drifted across the ground. Confident that none of his underserving subjects had seen him leave the castle. One person, however, did see him leave.
A small purple humanoid watched him from the branch of a nearby tree. Its green eyes were trained on Belos. The little abomination acted as a telescope for someone who a was looking through its eyes; a witch who hid behind a tree trunk a few meters back. The hidden witch mustered every ounce of his concentration into keeping his little abomination spy solid, while looking through its eyes and commanding it to keep Belos in sight.
The mini abomination scurried along and hopped between branches. Its creator silently followed on the ground, periodically dashing behind a new tree trunk and waiting for the emperor to move ahead. Both pairs of eyes made sure that Belos was still facing forward and not looking to the trees. Finally, the Emperor reached his destination. That destination was a seemingly ordinary cliff face. Belos raised his staff. A beam of red light shot from its tip and sketched a series of strange symbols into the cliff.
When the symbols were all in their proper places, they formed a series of concentric circles. Each circle had strange glyphs placed in specific spots of their perimeters. The pattern glowed bright red. A section of the cliff face slid away, revealing a secret passage. As Belos entered, the hidden witch concentrated on the still glowing glyph pattern, memorising the types and placements of glyphs on the circles.
He had been doing this every night Belos went to his secret place. Every time, the spy would memorise a few more glyphs on the rock. The section of cliff slid back into place once Belos had vanished down the dark passage. The carved glyphs faded away, as if the rocky flesh of the cliff had healed over. That's when the spy made his move.
A small bit of abomination slime appeared on his pointer finger, which he then used to sketch out the earlier glyph pattern. When he was finished, he pressed his palm on the drawing and felt a surge of pride when it glowed the same bright red as Belos' glyph combo. But he pushed down that pride and refocused. He was on a rescue mission.
Darius Deamonne, Abomination Coven leader and clandestine rebel, walked into the secret passageway.
He listened for Belos' footsteps to make sure he was far enough way to not be heard by the mad emperor. It wasn't long before the corridor opened up into a wide room, full of bones and shattered golden masks. Darius clenched his fists at the pointless waste of life that surrounded him. No, he couldn't lose his cool yet. It would all be worth it if he could save at least one Golden Guard. So, he forced himself to go deeper into the cave until he came to a second room. Sure enough, Belos was still there. Darius transformed into his abomination form, flattened himself into a puddle and slithered up onto the ceiling.
"Dash it all," came Belos' voice from below. "These accursed grimwalkers are taking longer to grow every time."
Belos' calm anger was focused on a small hand sticking out of a plot of earth before him. A plot that Darius thought looked a lot like a grave.
"His predecessor's been gone for a month now," the emperor said to himself. "It's only a matter of time before even those imbecilic coven scouts start to question his absence."
Belos then knelt down and brushed some of the dirt away from the plot. Darius could make out a face with closed eyes from his vantage point. The face of a small child. If it wasn't surrounded by black dirt, you'd think the child was just napping if you took one look at his peaceful face. Darius felt his sludgy body ripple with disgust when Belos brushed his fingers against the buried boy's forehead.
"I suppose I'll have to wake him up early. Perhaps, with his young age, I can mould this one's mind towards the path of righteousness. Children are the most impressionable, after all."
Belos couldn't be serious, Darius thought. Calling what happened to the Golden Guard – the man Darius knew as a mentor and friend - a "mysterious disappearance" was a shameful excuse for what Belos really did. Now he seriously wanted to turn a small child into a weapon of war just because he didn't want people to find out the truth about the Golden Guard? Darius knew then it was now or never.
He slithered across the inner-cave walls and onto a nearby workbench. Quickly he knocked a lamp off the table. Everything went dark for a moment, until Belos lit up the cave with a red light from his staff.
"Who goes there?" he said.
Darius leaped into a pile of bones on the table. He stretched and grew his body from inside the bony mass, making it start to wriggle. Darius hated that he didn't have any real plan other than "freak out Belos", but he was short on time. Darius, still wearing the bones, shuffled off the table to plop onto the floor. He started shambling towards Belos.
"Don't mock me like this. I know you're not real," the emperor said angrily.
The emperor's back was turned from the child. Good. Darius seperated himself from the shambling bones, but left behind a little fragment of his abomination slime, to continue puppteering the bones.
"Stay back!'
When Belos yelled that, his arm suddenly transformed into a mass of sludge. Similar to abomination slime in makeup but coloured in sickly greens and blacks. He raised his slimy arm high into the air, stretching farther than any normal arm should go, and then slammed it down upon the crawling bones.
After smashing the bones, Belos' voice turned from anger to panic, and he rushed over to the mess he had made. He knelt down and frantically sifted through the mess of broken bones. In his hysteria, Belos didn't see the purple blob that slithered towards the buried child.
Darius felt horrid having to puppeteer those bones. They were probably all that was left of the Golden Guard he knew. But he pushed that disgust down and climbed up onto the child's plot. Controlling the bones of a dead man wasn't about to be the last difficult thing he would have to do all night.
A small section of Darius' purple slime reached out and covered the exposed hand. If Darius wasn't in his abomination form right then, it would have looked like a hand was grasping the small, pale one sticking out of the dirt, as if two people had taken each other's hand before being condemned to be buried alive. The purple slime draped itself over the young witch. Once the child was completely coccooned, a drill head formed on top of the purple blob. Just as Belos let out a furious shout. Darius dived, spinning drill head first, into the earth, taking the child with him.
Darius ploughed through the thick dirt and stone below ground. Fast as a fireball, he tunneled through Darius moulded himself around the child's body, which looked to be barely older than six years, creating a cocoon of himself to shield the innocent from the immense pressure of the Boiling Isles' underground.
Darius never stopped moving through the earth, both to protect the still-unconscious boy and to keep the intrusive thoughts from working their unhelpful roots in his mind. Thoughts that told him, This is a suicide plan. Thoughts that were shouting, You almost got caught by the emperor himself. The resistance might as well be dead now! Why is this clueless child so important to you, Deamonne?
Darius let only one thought drive him: the memory of where he had placed a single puddle of abomination goop out in the forest. He felt an instinctual pull towards the small slime puddle, which wanted to rejoin with the rest of its abomination slime. It was a homing beacon for Darius. Soon, he sensed that it was right above him, so Darius turned his slimy drill head straight upward.
Within half-a-minute, Darius burst from the ground. In midair, the shapeless purple slime shifted into a humanoid shape. Darius was back to his normal self before his feet even touched the ground. He landed perfectly, and the young sleeping grimwalker was pressed up against his chest, cradled in his arms.
Darius took the time to examine the witchling he had just rescued. The boy looked to be about six years old and clung to him like a skunkape clings to its mother – arms around Darius's neck while the adult witch supported his underside. Darius wasn't planning on holding the kid like this when he returned to his witch form, it just happened. But that wasn't important, checking for injuries was. Fortunately, there were no cuts or scrapes on the kid's soft skin. Darius had taken the entirety of the earth's pressure, evidenced by the crisscrossing scratches on his arms.
Suddenly the cliff face that hid the secret passage began to shake. Darius took off running, the sleeping boy in his arms, when the cliff face exploded. Darius didn't look back for one second, even as the sounds of stomping and growling grew closer and closer. He drew a quick spell circle and summoned a small platform of abomination slime at his feet. The slime skated between the trees effortlessly, Darius riding on top of it. Adrenaline alone guided the abominations master between the trees.
The roaring sound behind him got louder and louder. It wasn't a wild beast roaring, however. It sounded more like the screams of a mad man. Darius made a hard left as another tree approached him. Hopefully Belos would continue going forward, allowing Darius to circle through the forest and take the long way to the rendezvous point. He and the grimwalker would be out of there in no time.
Suddenly, Darius' escape route was cut off by something much different from a tree. The coven head only saw two blue lights before felt his feet were swept out from under him. Darius curled himself up as he tumbled along the ground, shielding the grimwalker as best as he could with his own body. By the time Darius stopped rolling, his vision was blurred. He could only make out the vague outline of what had tripped him. It was tall and skeletal, with a face that had those two blue lights in the middle of it and antlers that looked just like the Emperor's mask.
"Darius Deamonne," the monster spoke in the unmistakable voice of Emperor Belos. Cold and calm as ever, a total contrast to the malformed creature that was speaking in that voice. "I never imagined you would turn traitor."
Belos raised one of his arms, and traced a spell circle with a long, claw-like finger. "That's such a shame. You were one of the most popular coven heads to date.
Darius winced. A sharp pain surged from the wrist where his Abomination Coven sigil was. Darius raised his arm up and saw purple, vinelike shapes growing out of the sigil. They spread down Darius' arm and up to his shoulder. His whole right arm was forced down to the ground, and the vines continued to grow, choking Darius' neck and the right side of his face. Darius could only grit his teeth as Belos pushed him onto his back and yanked his still free left arm off of the grimwalker. He cursed himself for letting himself be caught by the mad emperor, all because he had a case of bleeding heart for some kid he didn't even know. A kid who didn't deserve the same fate as the witch he was made from the bones of.
Belos, cradling the child in one arm, raised the other. It's hand transformed into a sharp blade.
"Unfortunately, you've seen too much. Don't worry. Everyone will know you died heroically fighting wild witches, just like your precious mentor."
Darius closed his eyes.
He opened them again when the sound of exploding glass rang out and Belos roared. Belos stumbled backwards with yellow liquid dripping down his face, then another vial hit him. The monster swung his bladed arm, disoriented. In his frenzy, he dropped the young grimwalker. But the child was caught by a small feline witch-demon who dashed past Belos' feet. Darius had never been gladder to see Eberwolf.
Darius' body hadn't been completely paralysed yet, so he rolled himself onto his side. Just in time to spot Eberwolf carrying the grimwalker on his back, towards a figure in a cloak. It could only be Raine.
Raine, still cloaked, scooped up the boy and threw a vial of purple liquid on the ground. A smokescreen started to fill the clearing. At the same time, the vines began to overshadow Darius' eyes.
Stay safe, Golden Guard, Darius thought to himself as his mind went blank and his vision turned dark.
Raine Whispers ran out of the forest and continued to Bonesburrough. They caught their breath as they thought about all they had seen that night. Emperor Belos had turned into some kind of beast. Darius, their comrade, had been captured. And in their arms was proof that Darius' shocking bit of intel had been true.
The boy in her arms looked so much like Fletcher, the Golden Guard, that it was scary. Belos had created a grimwalker, something believed to be only a myth, from the remains of his most trusted soldier and Darius' mentor. Thank goodness the boy was breathing. Only asleep, not dead.
Raine was brought back to the present when Eberwolf lightly pawed their leg. They and Eber had to flee before Belos caught them. But Raine knew they had to keep their promise to Darius first. Keep Fletcher's offspring safe from that monster that dressed like an emperor.
Raine couldn't keep the grimwalker. The Bard Coven apartments on the Right Hand were under frequent inspection by the Emperor's Coven. There was only one person Raine could think of who'd keep the child as far away from the emperor as possible. Raine wished they didn't have to bring her into this, but they owed this to Darius. They owed this to Fletcher and the innocent life that had been created from his remains.
Raine hopped on her staff and flew to the Owl House. They had contacted Eda via crow phone that tonight's mission had taken an unexpected turn. Didn't explain much more than that. She told Hooty she needed to see Eda now and, thankfully, the ever-talkative house demon understood the urgency in Raine's manner right away.
The door instantly opened to reveal Raine's wife of three years, Eda the Owl Lady.
"Raine, we've got to stop meeting like this," Eda said in a fake dramatic voice. "What would the emperor say if he saw a bard teacher and a wild witch, together?"
Raine pushed past Eda. They didn't want to be rude, but the kid needed a soft couch to lay down on right now.
"Raine, what is that?", Eda said with all teasing or dramatics gone from her voice.
"Well, it's the unexpected surprise."
"A kid?" Eda walked up to the unconscious boy, and then instantly covered her eyes. "A naked kid? Covered in dirt?"
"He's a grimwalker," Raine said. Better to just get right to the point. Eda had really pointed out how messed up this situation looked. "He's a copy of someone who was very important to the rebellion."
Eda recalled the word 'grimwalker', but only vaguely. Probably read it in one of those library books she'd been meaning to return.
"And you brought him here because…"
"Because the emperor will be looking for him. This child is a clone of the Golden Guard, Belos' most trusted soldier."
Eda suddenly looked she had just eaten something sour.
"You brought a child that the emperor's looking for directly to the Owl House? What happened to keeping things secret, on the down low?"
"It's, It's," Raine started stammering.
They had not thought this through at all. But it was the only option available.
"It's the safest place we could think to bring him. Look at him, Eda, the emperor was planning on turning him into a soldier when he doesn't look much older than six."
"Is the…grimwalker….okay?," Eda asked.
At that moment, the child's eyes fluttered open. Slowly he sat up. He stared at the two adults with wine-red eyes they had never seen on any witch before. He didn't cry for help or ask where he was or who he was. He just sat and stared; his face impassive.
"Hello," Eda said.
"Hello," the child repeated in a tone that matched Eda's. It turned its head like a bird would for a minute, before turning his dead-eyed stare back to Eda and Raine.
"Do you know who you are?" asked Raine.
"Who am I?"
The child sounded curious. As if expecting an answer from them.
"Do you remember anything? About Fletcher?", asked Raine.
"Is my name Fletcher?"
Raine bit their tongue. It felt weird to imagine this boy as Fletcher. They hadn't known the old Fletcher well, but she had known him to be a full-grown witch.
Eda had left by that point. She came back with a blanket and draped it around the kid's shoulders. The kid sat still as a statue. Wide eyes boring into these two adult witches, strangers to him, and waiting for them to speak again.
"What did the emperor do this kid?", Eda asked Raine.
"Nothing, other than make him, I suppose. He's a clone of the Golden Guard. The old one defected, started helping the rebellion in secret. Belos found out, so he had Fletcher, the last guard…destroyed. But this child doesn't seem to have his memories. He's a blank slate. Or maybe he's like an animal looking for something to imprint on."
"Imprint?", Eda said, her eyes going wide with shock. "Raine, you don't think he's gonna imprint on me do you?"
Raine furrowed their eyebrows. She didn't have an answer.
"Rainestorm, he can't stay here. I can't have a kid around when we're fighting the emperor. Especially if the emperor still wants him."
"Are you saying we should let the emperor have him?"
"No! I'm saying that he can't stay here. What do I know about kids? Nothing. And how can I take care of a kid, who's already, like, six, when I have to worry about…"
Eda's voice trailed off, but she didn't have to finish that sentence. Raine knew what would be the main problem.
"It will only be temporary. I didn't want to leave this kid with a random innocent couple after we just stole him from the emperor. I don't doubt that Belos will go full force to try and recapture him. The emperor is ruthless when you keep something from him, and the rebellion is supposed to help witches, not bring his wrath to their door."
Eda looked at the blonde-haired kid sitting on her couch. There was no malice in his eyes, no desire or ability to sell her and Raine out to the Emperor's Coven. There was nothing to him. He was like someone who just appeared in this world without any real identity or person to guide him.
"And if he does imprint on me?", Eda asked Raine.
"We could have him alternate between the Owl House and the Bard Coven apartments. My students there can help with taking care of him. Just until we can find a place to be his permanent home. A place as far away from the emperor's eyes as possible."
Eda thought hard about this possibility. But then her thinking was suddenly broken by a horrible noise that sounded like the shriek of Cthulu himself.
"Please, please, please can we keep him?!", it shouted.
Eda jolted to her senses to see that Hooty had stretched his wormlike body over to the young grimwalker. His beak was wide open in an overjoyed smile while his glassy black eyes stared right into the child's red ones. But the child just sat there placidly, not even flinching at how close Hooty was to his face.
"You and Raine having a baby was on my vision board! Hoot hoot!"
The kid started imitating Hooty's shrill hooting. Hooty joined in until the two were singing some kind of off-key song only they could hear.
"Awww, he's already taking after his Uncle Hooty." Hooty gasped. "Being an uncle is the second thing on my vision board! Wishes do come true!"
Hooty gave out a long hoot in excitement, the boy joined in. Eda plugged her ears.
"Alright, alright!", Eda called over the screeching chorus. "We can keep him for a little while. But only because it seems the little goober has already imprinted on someone here."
"This is wonderful! I've already made a list of baby names."
Hooty wretched and gagged until he coughed up a full-size leather book onto the coffee table in front of the grimwalker. After a few seconds of silence, the boy started imitating Hooty's wretching. He gagged several times as if trying to make a book fall out of his own mouth. Eda covered his mouth before the kid could make himself sick.
What was she getting herself into? She's not exactly responsible parent material. Besides, she couldn't stop thinking about what would happen when the curse came out. Eda's spiral of negative thoughts was silenced, however, when Raine turned her around to face them. A warm,
"I'm really sorry to drop this on you, but thank you."
They had a tired but grateful smile on their face that just made Eda's heart melt.
"I'll get started on finding him a good home as soon as I can."
Raine brought the hand on Eda's shoulder to her cheek and gently rubbed it with their thumb. Eda was always thankful that their partner had a way of making those worst-case scenarios vanish from her mind.
"It's no big deal, Rainestorm. We've been through harder things than this, right?"
Eda still wasn't sure if the Owl House was, indeed, the safest place for this child to be. She wasn't sure if she was the safest person for this child to be around. But she was willing to try. She owed Raine more than she could give them in a lifetime for sticking by her despite the curse.
Hooty was already using his beak to flick through the book he regurgitated. He ran through the list of names, but Eda tuned out his jabbering before he even finished the list of 'A' names. She decided to herself that, even if it's a temporary stay, the kid should have a name. Calling him 'grimwalker' all the time would get creepy really fast.
"What's the date, Raine?", asked Eda.
"Dismember 4th. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, just something that I picked up on back in the Potions Track at Hexside. When the sun is in a certain constellation, it determines the fundamental qualities of a potion, or something. Since this kid is kind of a blank slate, I figured we should name him after the constellation the sun's in right now. You know, to help him sort out the kind of person he wants to be."
Raine gave a wry smile at Eda. The Owl Lady looked away, blushing. She didn't normally pride herself on being a "nerd" in front of people.
"It's too shmaltzy, isn't it?"
Raine chuckled. "No, no. It's fine. It's cute when you're passionate about something."
Eda quickly calculated where the sun would be at this point in Dismember.
"Right now, the sun should be in the constellation of Oberon, the hunter."
"Hunter," parroted the boy, having turned his attention away from Hooty. He repeated the name to himself, as if testing out how it sounded.
Eda couldn't help but smile.
"Hunter it is."
And there you have it, the first chapter of what might become a longer story. Here's a recap of everything that diverges from canon in this AU idea:
- Eda didn't lie about the curse and accepted Raine's help, so she and Raine stayed together and got married. Eda still lives in the Owl House while Raine lives in an apartment block built specifically for Bard Coven members. Can't be public with their marriage when one is a branded witch and the other's a fugitive, after all.
- Raine and Darius joined their covens around the same time as each other. Because of this, they decided to start the rebellion together. Darius has just become the Abomination Coven head at this time, while Raine is still just a regular bard. She'll become the coven head around the time of 'Eda's Requiem' like in canon.
- Darius suspected foul play the instant the previous Golden Guard disappeared and went to investigate, soon learning about the grimwalkers.
A skunkape is a type of cryptid that is basically if Bigfoot lived in Florida. I imagined Hunter clinging to Darius like a baby monkey clings to their parent, so a skunkape was the closest fantasy equivalent I could think of.
The name for Hunter's predecessor, Fletcher, was taken from the excellent watching the show fanfiction I'd Be Your Memory by the-sentient-duck. Highly recommend you check them out, either on this site or on Archive of Our Own.
Please leave reviews. Every comment makes me a better author. See you next time.